Interesting Facts About Art
The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation.
The history of art mirrors the history of humankind, and the study of works of art and the lives of artists illuminates much about our shared past.
We’ve found some fascinating facts about art that we wanted to share with you! As HUGE lovers of art, we are always trying to learn more about artists, their style of art, ways to make art, and definitely love learning new things about the topic!
Join us for a class after you get inspired by these fun facts and paint in the studio (or even from home) and make some fabulous masterpieces of your own for your home!
ENJOY!
Art used to be an Olympic event!
The Olympics wasn’t always about abs and doping scandals. The founder of the modern Games, the Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was enamored with the idea of the true Olympian being a talented artist and sportsperson. Thanks to him, between 1912 and 1948 medals were given out for sporting-inspired masterpieces of architecture, music, painting, sculpture, and literature.
Leonardo da Vinci was a vegetarian and animal rights activist.
Apparently, he loved animals so much, that he bought caged birds (on sale for food or as pets) and set them free. He was way ahead of this time regarding the relationship between men and animals. There was Greenpeace in every epoch.
He bought caged birds and then set them free.
The Mona Lisa has her own mailbox in the Louvre because of all the love letters she receives.
Over the years many have fallen prey to the portrait’s ‘limpid and burning eyes’, leaving her offerings of flowers, poems, and, yes, love notes. Artist Luc Maspero allegedly took this fervor to a new high – and then low – in 1852, diving off a hotel balcony because “For years I have grappled desperately with her smile. I prefer to die.” Who knew art appreciation could be so dark?
Picasso could draw before he could walk, and his first word was the Spanish word for pencil.
This is a cool fact about Picasso! We have to trust Picasso’s mother on this one 🙂 The Spanish for pencil was lápiz. This was Picasso’s first word and he was pronouncing it like “piz, piz”. The rest is history, and already when he was 13, Picasso’s father (being a painter himself) saw his drawing of a pigeon and concluded that his son had surpassed him.
The color wheel predates the United States
Considering the US is one of the oldest modern democracies, this is pretty amazing. Sir Isaac Newton invented the color wheel in 1706 by refracting white sunlight into its six colors. The realization that light alone was responsible for color was radical, and the wheel proved especially useful for artists, who could now easily observe the most effective color complementation.
Roman statues were made with detachable heads so that one head could be removed and replaced by another.
This comes not only in the line of amazing art facts but also amazing historical facts. I guess it seemed very practical for the ancient sculptors not to make a separate bust for every emperor, but to wait for him to be killed and create only a head instead. Handy, huh?
In 2003 street artist Banksy stuck his own work to the wall in the Tate Modern Museum.
The prank was soon undone by its inadequate glue, but for a few hours ‘Crimewatch UK Has Ruined the Countryside For All of Us’, was hung in one of the world’s most famous museums. It also inspired Andrzej Sobiepan, a Polish art student, to a similar feat in 2005, where for three days he successfully passed off his work as part of the National Museum’s collection.
Learning art correlates strongly with your achievements in math and reading.
Have you ever told yourself that you are either a humanitarian or a math person? Well, the facts tell otherwise: if you are good at art, there is a high probability you are also good at math or other technical sciences. Researchers find that learning art correlates strongly with higher achievement in math and reading. So, if you learn art at school it will apparently help with algebra!
When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the empty space it left on the wall attracted more visitors than the painting had.
The Mona Lisa has been in the Louvre since 1797, but was gone missing for a while! The masterpiece was stolen in 1911 by an Italian employee of the Louvre.
https://www....stolen-louvre
In the top 25 of most expensive paintings, five are by Picasso!
So, if you ever posed a question of “Who is the best painter?” and couldn’t figure it out, maybe look at it from a numeric perspective. Of course, you can ask yourself, does money really talk in the case of art? In many cases, it does not, but it’s for sure that painters like van Gogh, Pollock, and Picasso dominate the top 25 of most expensive paintings in the world: https://en.w...ive_paintings
BONUS Fun Facts:
Painting the Mona Lisa’s lips took Leonardo da Vinci 12 years! Only the lips!
Pablo Picasso was an animal lover. He owned a pet monkey, a goat, an owl, a turtle, and packs of dogs and cats.
Everyone is born creative. Some just need more practice to find their creativity.
STARRY NIGHT!
If you’re all about the featured (and very-recognizable) painting, ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh, we’ve linked some more fun facts, specifically about the masterpiece:
https://www....rom-van-gogh/
You can also ALWAYS find ’Starry Night’ in one form or another on our calendar since it’s so popular for our guests to paint!
Here are some of the upcoming versions:
3/26 ’Starry Night Sunflower’
Sit under the stars and smell the sunflowers with us here at the studio!
https://www..../event/592508
3/29 ‘Van Gogh’s Sunny Day’
Come in and paint this unique, Van Gogh inspired landscape. Create a pastel painting of your dreams.
https://www..../event/592649
3/30 ‘Starry Night Wizard’s Castle’
This painting will be perfect for any wizard that wants to combine a famous painting with a famous book.
https://www..../event/592642
4/1 ‘Starry Night By The Lake’
DATE NIGHT PAINTING!
This simplified version of the popular Van Gogh painting places the viewer lakeside, surrounded by majestic pine trees.
https://www..../event/600050